Conservative Care Options for Knee Osteoarthritis

Physicians, now more than ever are recommending conservative treatment including but not limited to: low-impact exercise, acupuncture and manual therapy as part of a multi-modal approach for patients suffering from osteoarthritis knee pain.

Manual Therapy for Osteoarthritis of The Knee

Degenerative meniscus and osteoarthritis of the knee is common in the general population. In this condition sensitization of nociceptive pathways may result in patients with osteoarthritis perceiving relatively low level stimuli as being overtly painful.

All of these areas are highly innervated and as a result there are a number of physiological changes across different areas of the peripheral and central nervous systems including: peripheral receptors, dorsal horn of the spinal cord, brainstem, sensorimotor cortical areas, and the mesolimbic and prefrontal areas (Chen et al. 2017).

Low Impact Exercise

Good Life with osteoArthritis in Denmark (GLA:D™) is an evidence-based education and supervised neuromuscular exercise program. This program has been shown to have a significant impact not only on patient symptoms and physical function, but also on intake of painkillers and sick leave (Skou et al. 2017).

Key Point

Non-pharmacological therapeutic interventions are being embraced by the medical community because they are often simple to carry out, economical, and have relatively minor side effects.

There are a number of non-pharmacological options for osteoarthritis that patients can discuss with their physician. None of these options are a panacea, but they may help you put together a individualized multi-modal program to manage osteoarthritis related symptoms.

Richard Lebert Registered Massage Therapy

Richard is a Registered Massage Therapist in London Ontario who is experienced in the assessment and treatment of sport injuries. Richard uses a Adaptive Manual therapy which means that myofascial release, acupuncture, cupping, sports massage and IASTM are used in an individualized one on one treatment.